Blue Phoenix

Jo instantly lifted her head when she heard his answer. Disbelief filled her eyes as they looked at Hui Yue's deep and blue eyes and when she saw that he was serious, her own eyes misted over. She gnawed at her lip to keep back the tears.

Seeing how emotional she became, Hui Yue took her into a warm, fatherly embrace and smiled at both her and Lao.

"I am your father." He said with a serious expression on his face. "What I want from the two of you is for you to have a good life. I want you to enjoy every day and not worry about how to survive the next day. I want you to be spoiled and experience all the things you have never done before." He said.

"Of course, I want the two of you to become great experts as well, and this is partly for my own sake as I want the two of you to follow me when I travel the world. Also, I want to be able to look after yourselves so that you are unlikely to die an untimely death." Hui Yue explained.

He had never directly told these two children what he wanted from them, or what he expected, and his words made Lao's chin tremble as tears filled his eyes. Although he could feel that he was about to tear up, he fought to keep them back.

"I choose both of you for two reasons." Hui Yue continued. "First, I found that your talent was unparalleled. It was so outstanding that it was simply a shame that the two of you could not cultivate."

"Secondly, you reminded me of myself. I too lived a harsh life in a poor family, but at least I had my parents. You do not, and thus I wished to be the one who could give you the same feeling I had whenever I was home. The knowledge that there is someone who cares about you, someone who is always waiting for you, and someone who wishes you the best back home."

Lao was quiet for a long time struggling with the emotions inside of him. Hearing what Hui Yue said, he could feel his sincerity in each and every word, and he was simply overwhelmed by it. At first, he had been certain that Hui Yue took them in because of his talent. That he would forever be an investment, yet hearing the words Hui Yue said, the most important aspect was not for Lao to become a strong expert but because he genuinely cared about them both.

Seeing that someone took care of him the way he had taken care of Jo, he suddenly felt as though a huge weight was lifted from his shoulders. Even after Hui Yue taken them in, he was certain that they could only stay as long as he worked hard. But now he finally felt that Hui Yue was his father.

With trembling legs, he moved towards Hui Yue. The many years of holding it in, of forcing himself to be strong, of almost dying from hunger every day while knowing that he had to look after Jo had built up and strained his soul. The knowledge that no one in the whole world cared about them, that there was no one willing to help along with the stress from his daily life that had culminated was finally released from his soul as he cried his heart out. He felt relief rush over him, and with eyes so misty that he could barely see anything, he was finally able to let go. His tears were finally able to fall freely.

Hui Yue quickly gave Jo to Wang Ju Long who hugged the child who had also started crying, and Hui Yue dragged Lao into his embrace. He slowly stroked the young boy's hair as a sad smile spread on Hui Yue's lips. He understood that this was an emotional time for Lao, but he also hoped that the distant attitude Lao had shown before was gone.

"Fa... Father," Lao said tentatively. He had previously said that Hui Yue was his father to his friends at the academy, but this was the first time he had the guts to call him father to his face. Both Hui Yue and Lao were incredibly excited about it. Hui Yue had wished for Lao to treat him like family for a long time and Lao was proud to be allowed to call him father.

The four were seated in the garden for another hour. The sun vanished into the horizon, and the moon rose in the sky, bathing all four in the soft moonlight.

It wasn’t until now that Lao got his feelings under control again. Although he was very mature and had gained an outstanding intellect from reaching the King rank, he was still embarrassed by his behavior, but he felt so comfortable now. He was much more relaxed that he had ever been before and his happiness had spread. Jo had stopped crying long ago, but just like Lao, she was enjoying the warm embrace from Wang Ju Long because she eventually fell asleep in the older woman's arms.

Lao slowly freed himself from the warm embrace and with the sleeve of his robe, he wiped his face. Happiness shone in his eyes, and a happy smile was on his face. A smile which he clearly wasn't able to conceal.

"I think we need to sleep now. It will be an exciting day tomorrow." Hui Yue said, and Lao nodded his head. Although he was not going to sleep but cultivate, he was resting while doing so.

"I'll get Jo to bed." Wang Ju Long said with a smile on her face. She stood up while gently carrying the child in her lap as she went towards the mansion. Both Hui Yue and Lao smiled as they followed behind.

....

"Look at that!" Jo said, her eyes shining as she looked right and left constantly. Her entire body trembled because of her excitement. She had never before had the chance to visit such a marketplace so filled with people before. Many experts, merchants, and mercenaries had saved all their items for this annual pill auction, and now there were more than three times as many people that were selling items than usual. Food stalls were everywhere, and Jo was serious when she said that she wished to spend her money on food.

Being a King ranked expert Jo could eat as much as she wanted without gaining weight and she did her best to eat constantly. One moment she had candy apples in her hands, and the next sugar coated almonds. She often had some pastries and steamed buns in her hands as well.

Anywhere she went people were incredibly polite to her when they noticed that her aura was incredibly strong, especially for such a small child.

The marketplace did not only have merchants, mercenaries, and cultivators, but it also had some poor people who came to sell their heirlooms in the hope of getting enough money to survive.

Hui Yue and Wang Ju Long walked hand in hand with Lao by their side. On Hui Yue's shoulder was Huli, seated as if she were a guardian who looked down on the entire world.

Lao, like Jo, was constantly looking around at the sights. Whenever Jo stopped to purchase food, Lao would look at the stalls nearby, but he had not found anything that caught his attention yet. Hui Yue was not interested in common items, and all he wanted to buy was herbs and ingredients.

The more valuable the things were, the further towards the center of the marketplace there would be. Usually, Muchuan City had five large marketplaces and around ten smaller marketplaces; yet, today the small ones had turned large, and the large ones became massive. Today everyone was out shopping. In the streets, there were stalls set up so that even the ones who could not afford to pay the marketplace’s fees could sell as well.

Being inside the marketplaces were the safest. Many guards from the powerful families in the city would ensure that there were no problems. Those who were outside the marketplaces were at risk of being robbed by ruthless mercenaries.

The marketplace which Hui Yue and his family were in the right now was one of the smaller ones. As they walked through it, they understood that it did not have a lot of interesting items.

"Let’s head to one of the bigger marketplaces." Hui Yue laughed, and the others nodded. Together the four of them went towards a marketplace located close to the Alchemist Guild. The closer the four of them got to the marketplace, the more people who appeared in front of them. However, people ensured to get out of the way of this group of four as even the weakest in the group the children were King ranked expert. Such geniuses were enough to frighten anyone.

"Seems like the entire city is here to look around." Hui Yue said with a laugh to his family as they all moved forward at a steady pace, not being slowed down by people. Looking at the sky, Hui Yue saw a great many experts flying around on flying swords. It was without a doubt the best way to move when the entire ground was filled with people.

"They all seem to be headed in a certain direction Hui Yue said with a frown as he felt his curiosity rise." Looking at his family, he saw that they had the same curiosity. Even Jo, who was busy eating her fifth candy apple, was also filled with curiosity.

The group smiled to one another, and words were not needed as they all summoned forth a flying sword from within their storage stones.

Comparing these swords to the swords of the other experts were using was like comparing an ant to an elephant. These were created by the very best materials Hui Yue had at his disposal, and the runes were the best runes he was able to inscribe as well. This group of four took to the sky and flew in the same direction as everyone else.

Standing on the swords and looking downwards, all of them found that they were heading to the Alchemist Guild.

In front of the guild was a large city square. Usually, it was empty, but today there was a large stage and row after row of seats. Many of these seats had already been taken, and Hui Yue, followed by the others, landed in front of a clerk handing out leaflets showing what kind of medicinal pills would be on sale at the day's auction.

The auctions would happen once a day for a week and many alchemists were fighting to be in today’s auction. Originally, Hui Yue had no interest in selling any of his pills but seeing the massive interest in the many pills, Hui Yue reconsidered.

Landing in front of the clerk, Hui Yue accepted a leaflet and casually flipped through it. An eyebrow rose as he saw that someone was selling the white Yin pills from the Grave of the Unknown.

The Yin pills were not the only pills from the grave of the unknown; there was also some red pills and a few black ones. Hui Yue recognized all of them as he had quite a few of them. He, on the other hand, had never intended to sell these pills as he knew just how useful they were. Especially because he often relied on the white Yin energy pills to keep his cultivation base of Yin and Yang balanced.

Having casually flipped through the leaflet, he found nothing interesting but looking at everyone in attendance, their eyes were filled with the urge to purchase many of the pills. Seeing their expressions, a smile appeared on Hui Yue's lips.

"Let’s stay for this auction." He laughed and together the four of them went to find some seats where they could see the auction clearly.